Finding the Gospel of Jesus Christ showing up on the ground, with Christ and Heaven in our sights.

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Only One True Hero for Me

Do you have some heroes or some central ideals you tend to wrap your identity around? So have I at various points in my life. I haven’t moved on from this, per se, as I believe none of us arrive at a perfectly “only Jesus” hero admiration. Yet I have learned through the years to admire my heroes as normal people with some higher visibility in their lives. They are admirable and yet they are mortal and happen to have honed in on some admirable focuses. As a church planter, my heroes have historically been spiritual leaders, and one that stands out presently is Francis Chan and his other elders and house church pastors among the We Are Church house church planting community in San Francisco. I spent five days among the members and leaders of this family of Jesus followers a year ago now, and I was really blessed and encouraged as my wife and I sought God’s mission to make disciples through planting a house church network here in Central Cali.

That said, sitting with Francis and enjoying very real conversations with a handful of other church planters, eating a couple of meals with him and meeting his wife and kids, hearing him respond to my questions with humility and uncertainty, placing all his reliance upon God in Christ, it put my attention where it should be, toward our risen Jesus Christ! May we have our ultimate Hero be our ransom-paying Jesus.

This is no new message, and yet it’s easy to get overly focused on certain people and their thoughts or certain perspectives on God and forget to keep getting on our hands and knees before our holy God and seeking His face, His glory, His Mission for His people, trusting Him to direct!

Of course I would love one day to be one of my kiddos’ heroes in a healthy sense. What parent doesn’t hope they are living and modeling lives for their children which are admirable. However, I hope I most of all model for them how to not be idolizers but instead worshipers of the Living God in Jesus Christ our Redeemer and Lord!

“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah – Psalm 46:10-11